Monday, February 23, 2009

Mr. Tiggy-Winkle Comes to Visit

One of my students brought "Mr. Tiggy-Winkle" (a stuffed hedgehog, but don't tell Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle) to school. Mrs. Tiggles wasn't too sure about him at first.



But by the end of their visit, she was tolerating him pretty well.


He's back for another visit today!

Tiffany

Saturday, February 21, 2009

An Announcement

I'm glad to present "Take Two", a movie review blog.

Follow the link to see the new site!

Tiffany

Friday, February 20, 2009

The Day the Knights Visited

What happens when you're woken up from nap to go watch some knights

(Picture by Tiffany)

fight on your playground?

You get very tired

(Picture by Shannon)


while watching them fight and win.

(Picture by Tiffany)

But then you wake up just before it's time to go in and the world is all happy again. (Picture by Shannon)

Tiffany

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Thoughts

I'm thinking about starting a new blog. This blog would be to review movies following the example Mr. Botkin has given at the SAICFF and the Christians at the Crossroads conference.

If you're not familiar with how his family watches a movie, I would suggest going to an event where Mr. Botkin goes through a movie with the audience. Since that isn't practical for most people, I'll explain it a little bit. As I watch a movie, I will stop the movie each time I see a problem and comment on it. This is not just bad words, immodest clothes, etc, but more about the attitudes, the worldview that the director is displaying, the characters of the people on the screen, etc. (hmmm, two "etc."s in one sentence. Shannon, is that allowed?). It's amazing how much to "see" that you had missed before.

So be looking for the announcement of the new blog!

Tiffany

Monday, February 16, 2009

Correcting an Error

In the side bar on the blogs I regularly read, I put in Breezy's blog, not realizing that she had moved her address. But I adore the blog I had originally found, so I'm putting the link to that one here, so I'll be able to find it and then changed the link in the side bar.

Tiffany

Friday, February 13, 2009

In Honour of Valentine's Day

In honour of the very "red" day tomorrow, I decided to pull out the china I received from my Grandmother. I love it's "vintageness" and am so glad that we are going to use it. Many pieces have been broken over the years, but I love each piece that's left.

Ahhh, lovely. I'm ready to go eat now. :-)

Tiffany

A New Pattern

Sense and Sensibility has put out a new pattern. The counterpart to the Ladies' Edwardian Apron, the Girl's Edwardian Apron is now on sale.


This picture of Belle just shows how adorable this pattern is.


As you can see this pattern includes the big pockets that I love on the Ladies' pattern. I can't wait to use this pattern to make matching aprons for my daughters and I one day.

Tiffany

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Some New Friends

Our family went to the Christians at the Crossroads conference in Columbus, GA last weekend.

While we were there, some other bloggers recognized Shannon and came up and introduced themselves in person. Since I was stuck to Shannon's side (where I usually am at places like that:-), I was privileged to meet them as well. Then I revisited Emily Rose's blog and got lost in it for about an hour (it was during nap time, here at school) and couldn't wait to get back on the next day. Then I found her sister's, Breezy, blog and was absolutely delighted with all the paintings and drawings that she does. So today, I read through her blog. (It's a little hard to do anything, but computer when all the lights are out:-) I'm absolutely inspired. I would like my house one day to be filled with Emily's photography and Breezy's paintings. Please go and meet them yourselves. You'll be glad you did.

Tiffany

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

On Being Feminine

Webster's 1828 dictionary defines feminine as:

1. Pertaining to a woman, or to women, or to females; as the female sex.

2. Soft; tender; delicate. "Her heavenly form/ Angelic, but more soft and feminine." -- Milton

3. Effeminate; destitute of manly qualities.

4. In grammar, denoting the gender or words which signify females, or the terminations of such words. Words are said to be of the feminine gender, when they denote females, or have the terminations proper to express females in any given language. Thus in L. dominus, a lord, is masculine; but domina, is mistress, a female. Milton uses feminine as a noun, for female.


I think definition 1, is a little bit obvious to a lot of people. When people hear/read the word feminine, monsters don't usually appear in their mind. Usually the pictures that appear are inherently related to woman. So that one's taken care of.

Definition 2 I find very interesting as I think it's the definition that we tend to think of when we speak of feminine. "Soft, tender, and delicate". There are so many ways this can be applied.

~~Spiritually these qualities may be applied.

~We need to be "soft" to the Word of God, allowing it to make an impression in our lives.
~We need to be tender to the leading of those God has put in our lives to teach us more about Him (I'm specifically thinking of parents here).
~And we need to be delicate in our beliefs. Now I don't mean wishy-washy. But I believe that we can't be so stubborn on some points that if we were to be shown from Scripture that we are wrong, we wouldn't be able to accept that.

~~This definition can also be applied to our attitudes.

~We need to be soft in our speech to others. Again, this doesn't mean that we don't speak without conviction, but we need to make sure that we don't allow our voices to become harsh and unkind.
~We need to be tender to those around us. We need to be aware if someone around us is hurting and comfort them...or if someone is rejoicing, rejoice with them.
~And we need to be delicate in our speech to those around us, making sure that when we open our mouth to speak, we are not doing so to hurt someone else.

~~And then this definition can be applied to our outward appearances. This one is very much up for personal interpretation, so I'll just give my interpretation and let you and your family interpret this for yourself.

~How does one be "soft" in appearance? Does it mean only wearing pastel colours? No, it does not mean colours. I believe it means to not wear anything that would cause someone else to be startled. That sounds funny even to me, but I've got a picture in my mind of what that means. While I was a cashier at WalMart, I came across many women who were not soft in their appearance. The one that sticks out the most is the lady who was wearing a lime green shirt with skin tight jeans, large gold earrings, very dark blush, and black eye makeup. She startled just about everyone around her with her looks. I think dressing "softly" would include not wearing things that draw attention to your body or makeup that is overdone.
~What does it mean to be tender in appearance? This one is even harder. I think that being tender in appearance is being sensitive to those around you and not dressing a way that you know would be offensive to them. This kind of goes back to having a tender attitude as well. Practically it would mean wearing things that draw the eyes to the face and not to your body.
~Does being delicate in appearance mean wearing lace and frills? I hope not! I like well placed lace and fills, but not too often and not too much. :-) I believe this goes back to making sure that you are dressing like a woman. ---------I'm going to touch on the pants issue very quickly. Yes, there are pants today that are feminine and pretty. I don't think anyone seeing you in capris would ever dream you were anything but a lady. ;-) It's really the history of pants that I object to. The first "pants" that were worn were the bloomers of the 1880s developed by a feminist. Although they didn't catch on for fashion then, when WWI began and women starting taking over men's jobs so they could fight, they became more acceptable for women to wear. After WWII when women could have gone back to their homes, they chose to stay in the work force and continue developing and wearing pants. Then it became a part of the femininstic movement. Because of the history of why it is now acceptable for women to wear pants I tend to steer clear of them.
~~But back to being delicate, there should be no doubt when people see you from a distance that you are a lady.

Definition 3 got me intrigued. "Effeminate, destitute of manly qualities". That could give a whole new spin on things. It makes me think, "Is everything I do during the day devoid of anything that could be masculine."

Definition 4 is one of the most confusing things in learning a new language. I took and taught French for a number of years and my first question when learning and the first question I got when teaching it was, "How can a table be feminine?" A very good question and all I could say was "It's French."

I know going through the definition of femininity from the dictionary has given me a lot to think about. I hope it's done the same for you.

Tiffany